Note
For the past 4 months I have meditated, memorized and prayed Isaiah 35 for my coming ministry at Evergreen Community Church in Bothell, Washington on Seattle’s north side. Today Leslie and I will drive into Bothell to begin our lives there. Here is my meditation of the past 4 months.

Deserts are ugly and hurtful places that are rarely called “home”. The word “home” is used to describe places of verdant green and rushing blue streams. But it is God’s speciality to make the desert feel like home. How does he do it?

Step 1: Bring hope to life. There is nothing more important in changing a desert into a garden than hope. When looking for hope, don’t look for much. Remember that hope is always a little thing at first, like a crocus blossoming in a hostile place. That is hope. As Victor Frankl discovered in the concentration camp, those who survived had hope. Hope is small but powerful. Treasure crocuses or, more practically, celebrate any beautiful thing that survives an arid environment around it. That is God’s gift of hope.

Step 2: Refill strength by draining out fear. Feeble hands and knocking knees are always the result of fearful hearts. Humans have more strength to use than they know, but rarely use it because they are afraid. It is courage in one that can release strength from many. It does no good for God to restore a desert unless those who live in it are ready to make something of it. Those who have hope need to share it generously with those who do not. The result will be strength to work.

Step 3: Make the choice to be strong. Blind see, deaf hear, crippled dance, mute sing once they have made the choice to stop being afraid. The choice to be strong and to stop fear brings a miracle in every department. The world looks beautiful because suddenly we can see. The world sounds better because immediately we can hear. Even those with two left feet can dance and the tone deaf can sing because music is released inside of them. Vision is a powerful thing and it comes to those who are strong enough to receive it. With God beside us, strength is a choice as much as fear is a choice.

Step 4: Get ready for supernatural “suddenlies.” A flash flood gushing through the desert can do in a minute what a month of rain will never do. When people are prepared, God preforms suddenlies. In the Upper Room suddenly the sound of a mighty rushing wind came to those prepared. The Bible is full of sudden moments, like Joseph from prison to Pharoah’s palace, the Red Sea parted, Goliath dead and 5,000 fed. There is no limit to the surprises God has in store for those who are ready for suddenlies. Just remember that he won’t waste them on those who are not prepared for them.

Step 5: Make a safe road home. Winding in the middle of a desert turned into a showcase garden, is a homecoming road. This is the highway built by those who were once afraid but now are strong both because of their choice as well as God’s enabling. The road crew is made up of those who were blind, crippled, deaf and mute but who now can do amazing things in beautiful places. They must build a highway that leads to heaven. The local church must offer not just a way to find God, but a way for church to be done God’s way with God’s kind of people. Too many have been hurt in church life with rutted roads of selfishness. The church needs a High Way of holiness where there are no unclean leaders parading as whole or wicked fools strutting about as wise. There must be a safe way without wild animals. Instead, let there be a highway where lost people can come singing on their way home to heaven. This High Way makes the difference between heaven or hell for thousands. Let there be Main Street through the center of the local church choked with crowds of joyful and glad people on their way home.

Prayer,
Father, this is your story; at Evergreen Community Church, let this become our song. Today, we will, only by your grace, arrive in Bothell, Washington to begin our work. I ask that today, you would pour the blessings of Isaiah 35 into our church. Amen.